New York City To Pay $3.3 Million To Kalief Browder’s Estate

New York City has agreed to pay the estate of Kalief Browder $3.3 million for its involvement in the 2015 suicide of the 22-year-old Bronx native.

Why the Kalief Browder Estate is receiving a settlement

Browder was imprisoned at just 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack.

He was never charged with a crime or found guilty of the robbery but spent three years on Rikers Island awaiting trial after being unable to come up with bail.

For nearly two of those years he was held in solitary confinement.

Three years after his release and a hard fought effort to reclaim his life on the outside — Browder unfortunately hanged himself in his childhood home.

“Kalief Browder’s story helped inspire numerous reforms to the justice system to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again, including an end to punitive segregation for young people on Rikers Island,” according to a statement by the New York City Law Department.

“We hope that this settlement and our continuing reforms help bring some measure of closure to the Browder family.”

His family

Browder’s mother passed away in 2016, but he is survived by six siblings and his father. The family will continue to push for jail reform to address issues of solitary confinement and younger inmates being kept with older ones, family lawyer Scott Rynecki told NBC News.

“The family views this as step toward closure. However they are still looking forward to additional changes being made” to the jail system, Rynecki told NBC News.